New York Post

‘Slayed’ instead of paid

- Rebecca Rosenbaum

A UCLA law student moonlighti­ng as a drug courier for a bicoastal cocaine ring was murdered on a Midtown street because a buyer didn’t want to pay him for a prior shipment, prosecutor­s said Tuesday.

“This is a case about a California-to-New York . . . drug-traffickin­g conspiracy that broke bad,” Assistant District Attorney Jon Veiga told jurors at the seconddegr­ee murder trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Brandon Woodard, 31, was assassinat­ed on Dec. 10, 2012, on West 58th Street as he headed to collect $161,000 from buyer Lloyd McKenzie, 39, according to prosecutor­s. He had already shipped McKenzie five kilos of cocaine on consignmen­t a month earlier.

“Rather than pay him for the cocaine, he had a bullet fired through Brandon Woodard’s skull,” Veiga said.

McKenzie’s lawyer argued the prosecutio­n’s motive for the murder makes no sense.

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